Warp knitting, as known for many years, constitutes a type of knitting in which the yarns generally run lengthwise in the fabric. Yarns are prepared, as warps, on beams with one or more yarns being fed to each needle. Exemplary fabrics made by this type of knitting are tricot, milanese and raschel as well as mali type fabrics. Milanese knit fabrics constitute a type of run-resistant warp knit fabrics that exhibit a diagonal rib effect using several sets of yarns to make the fabric. Raschel knit fabrics can be made in plain or jacquered patterns with the latter being made to exhibit intricate eyelet and lacey patterns and is sometimes used as underwear fabric. Raschel fabrics are coarser than other types of warp knit fabrics and raschel type knitting machines have one or two sets of latch needles or compound needles and up to 48 sets of guides. Tricot fabrics are another type of run-resistant warp knit fabric in which either single or multiple sets of yarns have been used to produce the fabric.
It has also been known in the past to lay-in surface effect yarns but the present invention concerns a particular method of laying-in surface effect yarns in order to produce particularly highly styled novelty fabrics which are well designed for use as drapery fabrics.
Mali type machines use horizontal compound needles which stitch through a separate backing or through a separate layer of yarns to produce a variety of fabric constructions.